A look at some locals who help bring ideas to reality - on Broadway and beyond

By now it’s no secret that San Diego has become a nationally renowned incubator for new works of theater. Much of the credit for that reputation goes to La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre, which have developed dozens of works that have gone on to Broadway and around the nation over the past few decades. ■ But San Diego also is home to people who play their own independent roles in shepherding new plays and musicals from concept to fully staged reality. ■ San Diego’s theater producers span a wide range of experience, tastes and approaches. But what they share is a passion for working behind the scenes to bring a project together. Here, we talk with a few of them about what they do and how they do it:

Gail and Ralph Bryan’s lives have been entwined with theater since both were youngsters — first through acting in school productions, then through catching shows at La Jolla Playhouse while working their way through UC San Diego, then as Playhouse subscribers and donors in the mid-1990s.

But the couple’s interest in becoming behind-the-scenes theater movers crystallized one evening more than a decade ago, when they organized a Playhouse gathering for young professionals that featured a Q-and-A with playwright Doug Wright, who was working on a then-new piece called “I Am My Own Wife.”

“It was fascinating to listen to Doug tell how this true story became a play, and then to watch (actor and UCSD grad) Jefferson Mays perform it in the theater next door,” Gail recalls.

“I think we both became fascinated with the artistic process at that moment — and even more so when (the play) went on to Broadway and won three Tony Awards and a Pulitzer.”

Several years later, they earned their first major producing credit, on the Playhouse-launched musical “Jersey Boys,” which became a Broadway smash (and is still running there and in multiple touring versions worldwide).

Latitude Link, the production company Gail Bryan founded and operates in partnership with her husband, has been involved in more than 20 productions since then. Gail estimates those shows have been seen by more than 6 million people on Broadway and some 12 million worldwide. The Bryans also won Tony Awards for helping produce “Jersey Boys” and “Memphis.”

The couple’s level of involvement, Gail notes, varies from show to show. At times they serve as “above the title” producers, supplying a significant portion of the overall investment in the production. (That was their arrangement with “Jersey Boys.”)

At other times they take on the role of general partner — becoming part of the decision-making team and helping shape the show’s marketing. (They also participate more modestly in some shows as associate producers or simply investors.)

“Regardless of how we participate, we see more than 40 shows a year, plus numerous readings and workshops, so we’re often asked to give insight and input by the shows’ creative and producing teams,” Gail says. (Their producing work is strictly separate from their connection to the Playhouse, Ralph notes.)

As for how they decide to commit to a work, “we first look for material that moves us emotionally,” Ralph says. “We invest in creative teams with passion and talent who are willing to take artistic and creative risks. We also fund productions at their inception, often at the nonprofit stage, when the future of the show is unknown, nor necessarily defined."

He adds that “we always want to try to be a voice at the beginning of the conversation about where American theater is headed.”

Outside of producing theater, both are deeply immersed in a life of the arts. Gail is a board member (and former chair) of the Museum of Photographic Arts; Ralph, who continues to pursue a two-decade career in the financial industry, serves on the Playhouse board (which he likewise formerly chaired), as well as those of the Theatre Communications Group and Tectonic Theater Project.

His profession, Ralph says, has proved a good balance for his theatrical passion.

“I’m a full-time financial adviser, so I fully understand the risk involved in financing a Broadway show,” he says. “Only one in four shows fully recoup the initial investment. So we decided early on to take a portfolio approach to investing in theater — only invest what you can afford to lose, and spread the risk among lots of shows.

“One thing we know for sure: It’s hard to pick which show will be the next big hit, but if you support art and artists and people with a fierce vision, you’ll come out ahead more often than not.”

Coming up: In-development movie and musical versions of “Harvey,” as well as a London production of the Pulitzer-winning Mary Chase classic, among other projects.

Name-dropping is not really Don Gregory’s style, but when you’ve been a stage and screen producer for 40 years, it’s hard to walk someone through a story without stumbling over a famous person or two.

So Gregory mentions how Henry Fonda — who starred in Gregory’s first Broadway production, “Clarence Darrow” — also kicked in $10,000 to help fund its $80,000 budget (not a small sum for a one-man show in 1974).

He tells of how Anthony Quinn once scowled during a meeting when Gregory chalked up some of his own producing success to luck: “There’s no such thing as luck!” the famously fiery star barked.

And when Gregory is asked whether the stress of making theater might’ve contributed to a medical setback he had back in the ’80s, the producer responds with a guffaw: “I mean, you don’t think Rex Harrison and Richard Harris would give me heart failure, do you?”

He also tells of once being invited to a lunch at the fabled Sardi’s in New York, attended by such Broadway names as the late impresario David Merrick and the legendary director-producer Harold Prince (whose voluminous credits include “West Side Story” and “The Phantom of the Opera”).

“You know what we talked about the whole time?” Gregory recalls. “Their flops. No one once mentioned their hits.

“I didn’t have too many (failures). But Hal Prince told me, ‘Don, if you’re right 51 percent of the time, you’re a genius.”

As a lot of producers do, Gregory got into the business as a star-struck actor: “I always just looked at (show business) with awe and envy and a desire to do all those things,” says the New York native.

When he eventually moved into producing, his work was inspired in part by a yearning to have his voice heard: “I wanted to put my two cents in things, because I figured, I had a vision, too. I didn’t want to do something just for the sake of doing it. I wanted to do it because it said something.”

(Those “two cents” are meant figuratively, by the way: Gregory sets projects in motion, shepherds them closely and helps raise funds, but generally does not invest his own.)

For Gregory, the aspects of producing that bring the most joy have changed over the decades: “It used to be the casting. I loved putting that together. Then I used to get excited at the table reading. And now it’s the first dress rehearsal, when it just goes as smoothly as it could go.”

Opening night, on the other hand, “I hate. I’m nervous.”

While he shifted away from Broadway for a number of years to work on other projects, he returned in 2012 to produce the revival of the classic “Harvey,” starring University of San Diego/Old Globe Theatre acting grad Jim Parsons of TV’s “The Big Bang Theory.”

For the past four years, he and his wife have lived in Coronado. Beginning in June, Gregory will teach a four-week master class on “The Art of Producing” there as a fundraiser for the city’s fledgling Cultural Arts Commission. (For details, email commission chairwoman Heidi Wilson at CoronadoClassic@gmail.com.)

One dream for Gregory that didn’t quite pan out: He wanted his son, the veteran NBC-TV political journalist David Gregory, to become his business partner.

“I wanted it to be Don Gregory and David Gregory Presents,” he says. “But he didn’t want to; he went into TV instead. When I asked him why, he said, ‘Your business is too back-stabbing!’ ”

The elder Gregory doesn’t quite deny there might be some truth in that. But it hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for the theater.

“The only thing that gets in the way of show business,” he says, “is the business.”

DETAILS

“An Evening With Don Gregory”

The U-T’s James Hebert hosts a conversation with the veteran producer.

Credits: Producer of “Allegiance: A New American Musical.” Investor in shows, including “Lucky Guy,” “American Idiot,” “Catch Me If You Can.”

“I love to say ‘It happened in Cabo,’ ” is how Wendy Gillespie prefaces the story of her involvement with “Allegiance,” which premiered at the Old Globe last year and broke box-office records.

“Allegiance” is based on the true story of Japanese-Americans who were interned in U.S. camps during World War II. Gillespie says her own life “seems to be inextricably connected to Japan and things Japanese.” She once lived and worked in Tokyo, and later founded a company with her late husband that distributed a Japanese-owned company’s products.

She was vacationing in Mexico four years ago when she overheard someone ask “Allegiance” composer Jay Kuo about the musical.

“After three days and probably 10 hours of intense conversation, I was incredibly impressed, and I asked how I could invest in him.” Soon she found herself at a dinner before the piece’s first reading in Los Angeles, with cast member and chief inspiration George Takei (whose own family was among those interned), star Lea Salonga and other members of the “Allegiance” team.

“The rest is history,” says Gillespie, who went from investor to full producer, became immersed in the show’s subject (visiting the Manzanar internment camp and meeting with former internees and family members) and helped shepherd the project to the brink of Broadway. It’s now in the midst of a Manhattan workshop, with hopes of a Broadway opening next year.

Gillespie says she feels a particular affinity for two songs from the musical: "'Gaman' - strength through adversity and the resilience of the human spirit. (And) 'Second Chances.' Everyone suffers times of adversity at some time in our lives. We always have the choice and opportunity to create a second chance for happiness," a lesson Gillespie says hit close to home after her husband died.

But "what really speaks to my heart is the family story,” says Gillespie, who’s now a La Jolla Playhouse board member. “(The story) of multiple generations of Americans, who are torn apart by events beyond their control, simply because of their heritage.”